Meizu has been busy teasing us all for what seems to be an eternity and a half! At last, it has decided to be merciful and take off the wraps on its new 17 series flagships. What stunning beasts they are!
These flagships are the Meizu 17 and its better-equipped brother- the 17 Pro. There’s not much difference between the two specs-wise, though the Pro version has beefier muscles and is the one to go for if money is no object and you have been busy digging up gold and silver in your backyard! This variant has wireless charging, speedier RAM and cameras that are a cut above what can be found on the Meizu 17.
Both phones are the first 5G phones from Meizu, though we should probably be expecting a stream of such similarly-equipped phones soon from the company. Visually, both flagships could pass for kissing cousins. Yes, they are that similar! About the only noticeable difference is that the Pro has a ceramic back that looks particularly fetching.
Hail The Meizu 17!
The Meizu 17 has a 6.6-inch Super AMOLED screen equipped with a 90Hz refresh rate. It utilizes a punch-hole selfie camera layout and is the first phone from Meizu to come with such a feature. Underneath the HDR 10+ compliant screen is an in-display fingerprint scanner, while the aspect ratio is set at 19.5:9. Dual speakers are utilized here, while the newly rolled out mEngine 3.0 haptic engine helps keep things moving smoothly.
Both flagships have a 20MP selfie camera, with a 64MP Sony IMX686 camera on the back as the main shooter. The Pro version is however equipped with an 8MP telephoto sensor that is supposed to deliver 8x lossless zoom shots, plus a 32MP sensor for 129° stills. It also has another camera module from Samsung for collecting AR content, plus depth data.
The Meizu 17, however, makes do with less. Along with the aforesaid 64MP Sony shooter, it has a 12MP sensor for wide-angle shots, an 8MP ultrawide camera, and a tiny 5MP macro sensor.
Powering up both variants is the top-range Snapdragon 865, along with a maximum of 12GGB LPDDR5 RAM, but only on the Pro version. The other variant packs 8GB LPDDR4X RAM. As regards storage, both phones have either 128GB or 256GB UFS 3.1. Neither has a dedicated memory card slot.
Flagship Territory
Both the Pro and vanilla variants of this phone are lit up by 4,500 mAh batteries. These support fast charging, while the Pro can be charged wirelessly. Android 10 is the OS here, but with a thin layer of Flyme 8.1 atop this.
The Meizu 17 can be had in white, green, and gray colors. Preorders for the device are already running. CNY 3,699 ($525) gets you the 8/128GB version, with the 8/256GB variant going for CNY 3,999 ($565).
The Meizu Pro version too can be had in black, white, and mint green colors. Expect to fork over CNY 4,299 ($605) for the 8/128GB model, with the 12/256GB model setting you back CNY 4,299 ($665). Sales officially kick off in the Chinese market on May 11.
Apart from the two flagships detailed above, Meizu is also unveiling a couple of limited edition variants. One is known as the Collectors Edition 17 Pro and comes with a price tag of CNY 9,999 ($1,415). It is expected to be available starting from May 25.
The other is an Aircraft Carrier version, with a look that matches the name. This will launch on May 27 and cost around CNY 4,299 ($605).